On one hand Microsoft HAS put out some good hardware in the past, the early 360 and the 360's D-Pad were probably the most flaky and even then I'm guessing they were rushing things/pushing the next generation ahead of schedule for the sake of beating Sony out the door and to cut their losses on the Xbox. On the other hand the XB1 is so much bigger than the PS4 because they had to go for an esoteric RAM set up that may've been a serious flaw in their console whereas Sony being more straightforward could manage a smaller one, so who knows what's going on with Xbox design at all.

On the other hand the XB1 is so much bigger than the PS4 because they had to go for an esoteric RAM set up that may've been a serious flaw in their console whereas Sony being more straightforward could manage a smaller one, so who knows what's going on with Xbox design at all.

Esoteric RAM setup? They're using completely standard PC RAM. If either of the two has an esoteric RAM setup it would be Sony, since 8 gigs of GDDR5 is completely unprecedented (though really, neither setup is all that esoteric...). Unless you're talking about the embedded memory on the XB1, but that has absolutely nothing to do with the size of the system. It does affect the size of the CPU die, but then Sony went on spent that space on extra GPU units so the two chips are really about the same size.

Given that GDDR5 runs hotter and needs more cooling (which it does), if anything I would have expected Sony to have the bigger box. But that's clearly not the case. Wired did a teardown of an XB1 and there's a lot of just wasted space in there...normally console boxes are pretty packed but there's just empty space in the XB1. It's weird.

I'm guessing its so that they can turn around and announce the Xbone Slim at next year's E3.

Considering all the extra space in the Xbone... plausible.

Also if anyone hasn't seen it: "The Xbox One's pre-order disclaimer says “'Terms include binding arbitration with class action waiver to resolve disputes.' That means that if the Xbox One has a widespread issue like its predecessor's “red ring of death” (RRoD), the affected owners will have to sue Microsoft individually, rather than banding together in a class action."